The front door swung open, and Rachel stepped in briskly, her expression hard and unreadable. She ignored her mother calling out from the kitchen and went straight to her room. The door to her bedroom shut behind her. She dropped her bag on the floor and collapsed face first onto her bed, fists clenched.
Rachel lay there motionless for a few seconds. But her thoughts were loud.
John's voice echoed in her head.
"I love you, Kana."
Her eyes snapped open. Fury swelled in her chest like a fire igniting.
She sat up sharply, glaring at the floor like it had insulted her.
Rachel: (gritting her teeth) Why... WHY HER??
She reached over and grabbed her phone off the bedside table with one swift motion. Her fingers flew across the screen. Tap. Scroll. Search.
She opened Twibbler.
Rachel didn't even blink as she typed in the username.
@Lonelygirl4556
There it was. A modest profile with a soft, unassuming display picture. A digital diary of poems and emotional late-night posts. Followers: over a thousand.
Rachel stared at it for a long moment.
Then she whispered under her breath, voice low and sharp:
Rachel: Kana. So that's her name…
Her thumb hovered over the screen.
She didn't follow the account. NShe just stared at the account on her screen and a small twitch formed in her jaw and a mixture of disbelief and resentment flashed in her eyes.
Rachel: (whispers) You're the reason he said no to me…
Darkness wrapped around Rachel's room like a second skin. Only the faint blue glow of her phone screen lit her face. Her breathing was steady, but the storm inside her had long since broken free.
Her mind spun backward.
*******
She had just gone to the back of the class to get an extra pen for their mock exams.
She crouched down beside her own bag, but her hand subtly nudged the one next to it was John's. As she pretended to rummage through her belongings, she kept her head low, eyes flickering up only once to check on her surroundings. John was bent over his paper, deep in concentration, his pen gliding smoothly across the page. The teacher's back was turned as she reviewed something on the board.
Perfect.
Rachel unzipped John's bag quietly and precisely she slipped her hand inside, brushing against a familiar object: the sleek surface of his phone.
Her fingers hovered just long enough to press the side button, waking the screen.
And there it was.
A preview of a message still visible under the lock screen. The contact name stood out like a glowing red flag:
Lonelygirl4556.
Rachel's eyes narrowed.
A girl? Who was she?
As she asked herself these questions, she remembered all the times John would smile at his phone. It wasn't his usual smile. It was soft, private. Like the kind someone wore when they were in love… or at least, getting there.
Her heart tightened. A few simple words from the message lit up the screen beneath the contact name:
"If you pass… maybe I'll let you see it again…"
Rachel's mind raced. That flirtatious tone, that playfulness, she recognized it. That wasn't just a friend. That was something more.
"See it again?"
Her mind raced through a thousand filthy possibilities, most of which she couldn't stop even if she tried. Her face flushed not from embarrassment, but from heat rising in her chest.
Rachel: (to herself) What the hell does that mean…?
Her fingers trembled as she put the phone back and zipped the bag closed and made her way back to her seat.
*******
The memory of that flashed in her mind as she sat up straighter on her bed. The way her stomach twisted back then hadn't changed. If anything, it had only grown worse.
She had gone home that day and searched for Lonelygirl4556 and it didn't take long to find Kana's Twibbler account. The girl wasn't exactly subtle; her posts were filled with warm little thoughts and oversharing with followers who adored her.
Rachel had scrolled for hours and read everything.
For a time, she had even made a burner account, Saucy101 which she decided to use and spread hate on her account.
Her thumb hovered over the post button more than once.
She had typed out messages like:
"No one cares about your sad little life."
"You think being sick makes you special?"
"Bet you're just faking for attention."
But each time, her thumb froze. She couldn't do it. So she decided to let things go and move on…
But then the writing competition came in January and Kana announced it excitedly, saying she was submitting her entry after months of self-doubt. Her followers rallied behind her with kindness.
But what made Rachel snap… what truly lit the fire was seeing John repost Kana's writing competition entry on Twibbler.
Rachel had stared at that screen like it slapped her.
He was proud of her?
She was supposed to be the one he cared about. She was the one who had been with him since middle school and she was the one who understood him, his pain and his rough past.
And now this girl, this delicate little ghost in a hospital bed, had taken him away with one soft smile and some fragile poems?
So she broke.
She logged into Saucy101, this time without hesitation and typed the first thing that came to her mind.
"Lol, good luck. Don't get your hopes up. These competitions don't care about your pity stories."
Once she had started, there was no going back, and like magic, other toxic accounts swarmed in. And when they all began to attack her online, Rachel felt something terrifyingly satisfying in seeing everything unfold until Kana blocked the Saucy101 account and several others.
For a while, Rachel had felt... victorious.
But that faded as she wondered what she was turning to.
And she told herself to let it go.
Let him go.
Let her go.
But then earlier that day, Rachel saw John on a phone call and what she overheard shattered all that.
"I love you, Kana."
Right there on the street, Rachel couldn't breathe when she heard it. It rang in her head like a siren. He said her name out loud and with love in his voice, as if he'd already decided.
Rachel (whispering) She's getting everything that should've been mine…
Her fingers moved again. This time with no hesitation. She opened Twibbler, created a new account with the username: Saucy1012
She'd be smarter this time and more calculated and just keep applying constant pressure, whispering lies disguised as truth, casual cruelty hidden in fake concern and she'd poison the comments, twist the compliments, question the sincerity behind every poem Kana posted.
Slowly, methodically, she'd turn Kana's safe space into a cage of doubt and humiliation. Not just once. Not just for a day. She'd keep going relentlessly until Kana couldn't take it anymore and vanished completely.
And no one would know it was her.
As she stared at the newly created profile, Rachel's lips curled into the smallest, coldest smile.
Rachel: (whispering) Let's see how perfect she stays… when everything starts to rot.